German-American Discourse on Politics and Culture

July 30, 2009

I blogged about this already at DailyKos. US conservative politicians are attempting bo block President Obama's change agenda with something called Biblical Capitalism. Their primary short-term objective is to torpedo health care reform for all Americans. Here is Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) on health care reform:

"If we do this (stop health care reform) we will have struck a blow for
freedom by stopping our freefall towards European socialism – the sort
of system proposed in the early nineties by a recent First Lady.
"

What is Bliblical Capitalism? To find out I looked into Senator DeMint's new book Saving Freedom: we can stop America's slide into socialism. One could read this book as a manifesto of Biblical Capitalism. What DeMint attempts to do in Saving Freedom is to fuse the teachings of Friedrich Hayek (falsely identified as a "German philosopher") with the teachings of Jesus. Problem is, it is painfully obvious to the reader that DeMint has read neither Hayek nor Jesus. At most, he MAY have read Milton Friedman's introduction to Hayek's The Road to Serfdom (Deutsch: Der Weg zur Knechtschaft).

For DeMint, "socialism" leads inexorably to tyranny. What is "socialism" in the context of Biblical Capitalism? DeMint and his fellow Christian freedom-fighters define socialism as any government-sponsored program (excepting the military). Name any government-sponsored program - Social Security, Medicare, Public Education - DeMint is against it. Rather, DeMint proposes a Jesus-centered economy based on the totally unregulated free market, the foundation of which he finds in Hayek.

Trouble is, in The Road to Serfdom, Hayek is critical of the pure market fundamentalism espoused by DeMint and his right-wing colleagues:

""probably nothing has done so much harm to the liberal cause as the
wooden insistence of some liberals on certain rules of thumb, above all
the principle of laissez-faire capitalism".

Further, Hayek was an empiricist who no doubt would have heaped scorn on DeMint's faith-based economic principles, where the "invisible hand of God" holds sway.

Hayek died in 1992, before DeMint entered politics, but he wrote a highly critical essay about the American conservatives: Why I am not a Conservative. The essay was written in 1960, but already back then Hayek was disturbed by the anti-science stance of many conservatives in the US:

"Personally, I find that the most objectionable feature of the
conservative attitude is its propensity to reject well-substantiated
new knowledge because it dislikes some of the consequences which seem
to follow from it - or, to put it bluntly, its obscurantism. [...]I can have little patience with those who oppose, for
instance, the theory of evolution or what are called "mechanistic"
explanations of the phenomena of life because of certain moral
consequences which at first seem to follow from these theories, and
still less with those who regard it as irrelevant or impious to ask
certain questions at all. By refusing to face the facts, the
conservative only weakens his own position. Frequently the conclusions
which rationalist presumption draws from new scientific insights do not
at all follow from them. But only by actively taking part in the
elaboration of the consequences of new discoveries do we learn whether
or not they fit into our world picture and, if so, how. Should our
moral beliefs really prove to be dependent on factual assumptions shown
to be incorrect, it would hardly be moral to defend them by refusing to
acknowledge facts."

Hayek's Why I am not a Conservative is just as fresh and relevant with respect to DeMint and his fellow "freedom fighters" today as it was 50 years ago. Conservatives never change!

Sales of Hayek's The Road to Serfdomhave been surging recently. Hopefully those buying the book now are - unlike Senator DeMint - actually reading it.

The congressional investigation appears to focus on whether internal
communications, such as email, show bankers had private doubts about
whether mortgage-related securities they were putting together were as
financially sound as their public pronouncements suggested. Collapsing
values for many of those securities played a big role in precipitating
last year's financial crisis.

Anyone want to take a guess on what they will find? I am
sure there are plenty of emails and other electronic messages floating
around to get someone in trouble. I never understand how people have
not realized that email is forever. Regardless, they will clearly find
something, but they should look at the trading in their accounts versus
what was being sold to their clients, that is the real evidence.

Maybe we'll see Josef Ackermann doing the "perp walk" on his way to join Bernie Madoff for an extended "vacation."

Meanwhile this was the scene yesterday outside Deutsche Bank's US headquarters at 60 Wall Street:

July 28, 2009

Holocaust denial is a punishable crime in both Germany and Austria. But that doesn't stop certain Web site from advancing the point of view that the Holocaust never happened. Case and point is the "Catholic" Web site kreuz.net. This site describes itself in its banner as "katholische Nachrichten" - Catholic news. In reality, it is an anti-Semitic hate site that identifies with the most reactionary strains of Roman Catholicism.

How does kreuz.net get away with publishing content that is clearly illegal in Germany? Easy. The site's owners simply change the domain suffix to .net and find a hosting service in America. In the US, Holocaust denial is protected under the First Amendment, so the anonymous operators of kreuz.net believe they are protected from any legal liability. They can thus post articles like this with apparent impunity.

It should be pointed out that kreuz.net - although now hosted in America - publishes frequent and vicious attacks on minority groups in the US, especially lesbians and gays. Another favorite target is President Obama, whom they call "der amerikanische Blut-und Homo-Präsident" (evidently a play on Blut und Boden - "blood and soil"). Commenters are permitted without any censure to call for the assassination of President Obaman (HT Politblogger).

I have sent the following e-mail message to the hosting service for kreuz.net - Global Net Access in Atlanta:

Hi XXX,

You may not be aware of this, but Global Net Access is
hosting a German hate site: www.kreuz.net.
I follow Web sites in Germany that deny the Holocaust and advocate
violence. Holocaust denial is a criminal offense in Germany, but not in
the United States, so hate groups seek to find American hosting services where
they can continue to spread their poison.

This particular hate site – kreuz.net – also makes hateful
comments about President Obama, going so far as to advocate
assassination. I am happy to provide the relevant links to this.

I am sure that the views expressed by kreuz.net do not
represent those of Global Net Access and its employees. I strongly
urge you to consider severing your relationship with the group behind this
site.

I am also alerting the Wiesenthal Center in New York
concerning kreuz.net. They track the activities of Holocaust deniers and
their enablers globally.

Sincerely yours,

David Vickrey, Ph.D.

Global Net Access have asked for English translations of the offending articles (actually, EVERY article on kreuz.net is offensive).

Even if I succeed, with the help of the Wiesenthal Center, of getting the hosting service to shut down kreuz.net, the site will not doubt spring up on another service. Last year I had success in working with the Wiesenthal Center to shut down an American Holocaust denial site. Unfortunately, the site is again up and running. All we can do is keep putting on the pressure to drive these hate sites out of business.

July 24, 2009

The Czech daily Mladá Fronta Dnes quotes a study that found that bad economic times leads to bad sex and diminished libido. However, the researchers also don't believe that better times will necessarily result in better sex:

"The scientists surveyed also claim, however, that during economic
booms people don't think about sex because they are too busy thinking
about business. It rather makes you think of farmers who fear too much
rain as much as they fear drought. People used to say sex was a
pleasure for the poor, sex was great and was free."

But there is some evidence that people are having more sex during this economic crisis. Of course, they may just be having more "bad sex". In any case, Sigrid Neudecker, who edits the Sex Blog at Die Zeit, sees plenty of evidence that people are making good use of the all the spare time they have today while unemployed:

Die Welt sees a silver lining (for enhanced lust) in this terrible economy. The conservative daily cites the American anthropologist Helen Fisher, who studies the biochemistry of love, that anxiety over one's jobs results in an increased release of the hormone dopamine, which acts as an aphrodisiac.

But Dr. Fisher also points to the downside - sexually speaking - of bad economic times. You can watch one of her lectures on TED (unable to embed). Towards the end of the video, Dr. Fisher warns of the effect of antidepressents that enhance seratonin but supress dopamine. Millions of Americans (over 200 million prescriptions just last year) are taking these drugs; many because they are depressed by the bad economy.

July 22, 2009

What happens when you take the greatest writers and composers of Europe and place them in the epicenter of American pop culture - Los Angeles - far removed from their cultural tradition and their language? The dramatic potential is enormous - especially since the central figures loathed each other and avoided each other at home, and suddenly found themselves thrown together in a California hothouse, united by the shared fate of exile from their native countries. That is the focus of Michael Lentz's novel Pazifik Exil. Just one thing: there is virtually no drama in this novel, or rather, the drama takes place in the heads of the key figures.

The novel begins with Marta Feuchtwanger learning of the election victory of the National Socialists in 1933 while skiing in the Alps and ends with Katja Mann remembering her dead husband as well as the other exiled writers, all dead. In between we are presented with interior monologues of Thomas and Heinrich Mann, Franz Werfel, Arnold Schönberg, Lion Feuchtwanger and - especially - Bertolt Brecht. How audacious of Michael Lentz to imagine the most intimate musings of geniuses, and how could he possibly pull off something like this? With great aplomb, it turns out, since Lentz obviously immersed himself in the diaries, letters, memoirs and works of all of these luminaries. Like a medium, Lentz is able to channel the essential voices of these giants, providing the reader with a forbidden pleasure of imagining them alive -however briefly - in a surprising way.

July 19, 2009

The author and security expert Udo Ulfkotte has made a name for himself in Germany by warning of an impending Muslim takeover of Europe which threatens the continent's Christian heritage. Now Dr. Ulfkotte has gone ever further by warning that many areas of Germany will be "ungovernable" by the year 2020. The title of his new book is Vorsicht Bürgerkrieg (Watch Out: Civil War!). In it, Ulfkotte presents a map of Germany with the towns and regions that are powder kegs of civil unrest that are set to explode in rage. If you are unlucky enough to be living in these locales, you should consider moving. If you are a manager, don't invest one more Euro there, and for tourists these are "no-go" areas. Where are these hot spots of civil unrest? Above all, Ulfkotte points to the Ruhrgebiet - the Ruhr River region which used to be the Germany's industrial center. But sections of the other major cities such as Hamburg, Bremen, Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich und Hannover are also set to explode in rage. And then there is the entire state of Saxony in eastern Germany which could ignite in civil war at any time.

What will set off this civil war in Germany? Ulfkotte sees doom and gloom across the board:

And what is Dr. Ulfkotte's primary source of information for this coming civil war? The good doctor bases his prognosis on a CIA study which projects trends for the next 11 years (a summary document can be accessed here(pdf)). That would be the same CIA that misjudged the military strength of the Soviet Union for decades, that missed the terror threat of al Qaeda to the US, and that said that it was a "Slam Dunk" that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

When civil war does break out in Germany, Dr. Ulfkotte will be far away: according to the press release of his publisher, Ulfkotte is now teaching in the heart of America's Sodom and Gommorah - Olivet University in San Francisco. I have tried to reach him through the faculty office for an interview.

Kellwood Co. said Monday it is disappointed in the change of heart
by bondholder Deutsche Bank AG (DB), which it said had supported a debt
exchange before changing its mind on Friday, but Kellwood said it is
still negotiating with the bank to try to get breathing room on a
rapidly approaching debt maturity.

The company, one of the U.S.'s largest apparel manufacturers, could
be forced to file for bankruptcy after it failed to reach an agreement
with its bondholders, people familiar with the situation told The Wall
Street Journal last week.

[...]Kellwood Chief Executive Michael Kramer said Monday the company was
"surprised and disappointed by Deutsche Bank's current position as they
were on our bondholder steering committee, helped structure the deal
and told us all along that they supported it."

Kellwood is performing well, is profitable, and has a positive cash flow. It needs some breathing room with respect to debt service, but it appears that Deutsche Bank is determined to force it into bankruptcy, just as it has forced thousands of Americans out of their homes.

July 14, 2009

Theodor Fontane wrote the ballad Das Trauerspiel von Afghanistan while working as a foreign correspondent in London in 1857. It is believed that the battle described here is from the first of the three Anglo-Afghan Wars.

July 13, 2009

It is a murder that has had international repercussions for Germany but which went unreported in the US: a young, pregnant mother of a 3-year old was testifying in a Dresden courtroom against a Russian immigrant who had insulted her at a playground for wearing a hijab. In court, the Russian ran up to her and stabbed her 18 times. When the woman's husband tried to save her, he was shot by a security officer.

A tragic act by a deranged individual? Or did this reflect some deep-seated anti-Muslim prejudice in Germany?

The debate rages in Germany and in the Middle East, where the incident is being used to whip up anti-European sentiments. At a memorial service and peace march last week in the Dresden, the majority of the mourners were non-Muslim Germans.

One aspect of the case points to a larger issue than than simply the crazed action of a lone perpetrator. Before the stabbing, the Russian defendant shouted at Marwa: "Do you have a right to be in Germany at all?" Then he threatened her:
"When the NPD comes to power, there'll be an end to that. I voted NPD." So, obviously, the political rhetoric of the neo-Nazis played a role in the murder. Politblogger has been collecting videos of right-wing extremist groups in Germany that demonize Muslims. Linkezeitung blamed the hate blog Politically Incorrect , although there is no evidence that the Russian had ever read the blog.

In the US, we are seeing an rise in hate crimes similar to what occured in Dresden. The blogger and journalist David Niewart has been investaging the root cause of these crimes and has put his findings into a new book: The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radlcalized the American Right. This is how Niewart defines Eliminationism:"a politics and a culture that shuns dialogue and the democratic
exchange of ideas in favor of the pursuit of outright elimination of
the opposing side, either through suppression, exile, and ejection, or
extermination." This the culture we see in the US on right-wing talk radio with respect to racial minorities, and we see the same phenomenon in Germany with the right-wing extremist parties. In the US, the danger is compounded with pervasive gun ownership.

This video addresses the problem that is growing in both the US and Germany.

July 11, 2009

Robert McNamara died last week at the age of 93. He will forever be remembered as the "architect" of the Vietnam War, in which more than a million non-combatant Vietnamese civilians died. But it is important to remember that McNamara got his first taste of war in World War II, where he first put his tremendous statistical skills to use to kill civilians. As a young officer in the Department for Statistical Control, McNamara showed General Curtis LeMay efficient ways of delivering unprecedented quantities of incendiaries ("firebombs") to Hamburg, Dresden and other German cities and finally to all major Japanese cities.

Later, McNamara admitted that he and LeMay were guilty of war crimes. When recounting a bombing raid of Tokyo that killed more than 100,000 Japanese civilians in one night, McNamara said. "Well, I was part of the mechanism that recommended it (the bombing raid). I analyzed the bombing operations, and how to make them more efficient. .... LeMay said if we'd lost the war, we'd all have been prosecuted as war criminals. And I think he's right. He, and I'd say I, were behaving as war criminals."

Historian Howard Zinn was a young bombardier aboard a B-17 with the 490th Bombardment Group and flew numerous bombing missions in Germany, delivering the incendiaries organized by McNamara. But Zinn drew different lessons from his experiences and led the protests against "McNamara's War" in the late 1960's and early 1970s.